Stairway to Olympus
by LizzardMonster
Summary: Left unclaimed, Hyacinthus Monroe is one of the most confused and conflicted half-bloods that monsters have ever sniffed out. Maybe a trip to Olympus to confront the gods head on will be the solution to her problems. But then again, maybe not.
1. Chapter I

I've never met my father. In fact, I don't even know who he is. My therapist thinks that this is the root of all my emotional problems. This, of course, is complete crap.

I clutched the bead fastened around my neck with leather string as she asked another question about my father that I don't know. Booooring. How I'd love to tell her that not knowing a parent is par for the course for a lot of my friends. That I was only there talking to her because it's the only way I'd be allowed to stay at this school a second year. Which would be my record since the first grade.

"Alright, if you won't talk about your father, then how about you tell me about camp? It was a huge surprise to me when your mom told me you were going. It must have been upsetting for you, that much of an upheaval." The therapist flicked her bangs from her eyes, and poised her pen to take notes.

"I like camp," I said defensively. It was true; I had loved camp for the summer I had been there. A thirteen-year-old girl showing up at camp followed by a pack of hellhounds on her heels had been a little unusual. By that, I mean that the thirteen-year-old girl surviving was unusual. I had been totally alone, after taking a bus and then a cab into Long Island. I had stopped the cabbie when I saw the hellhounds racing towards us.

"And why is that, Hyacinth?" my therapist asked. I shrugged, and stared at my toes, thinking of my arrival some more. I had been so close, but so, so far from safety. The camp my mother had told me about was at least another mile away, according to the signs that advertised the strawberry farms that were the Camp's cover. I told the cabbie to stop right there, in the middle of nowhere, tossed him forty bucks, and booked it. It's a really good thing that I've always been a fast runner, and that I hadn't had enough time to load my backpack up with much more than a few pairs of underwear and a change of shirt and socks, plus a toothbrush and picture of my mom and I. I wasn't weighed down by my backpack, and I was able to sprint nearly halfway to camp before the hellhounds caught up with me.

"There must be some reason. Did you make friends there?" Did I make friends? My friends are the only reason I got to camp at all. I thought I was a goner when the hellhounds were upon me, until a boy a few years older than me flew up on a Pegasus. He held a sword naked in his hand, and was decked in ancient Greek armor.

"Phalanx advance!" he shouted, and a band of kids with shields and varying weapons advanced, and began fighting the hellhounds. I ran. I couldn't help, I didn't know how. The warriors stuck close to my back, gladly retreating towards the top of the hill. I sprinted past a huge pine tree with a dragon standing at the ready next to it. My legs gave out, and I tumbled down a hill.

"Be at peace, you are safe here," a kindly looking middle-aged man in a wheelchair told me, as I burst into hysterics.

"Yes," I told my therapist. "I made friends there."


	2. Chapter II

_"Elbow bent! Arm straight! Tighten those stomach muscles!" the head councilor of the Apollo cabin, Michael Yew, snapped at me. Even at three years older, he was six inches shorter than me. Michael hit my stomach with his bow, and I tightened my muscles against the blow that had become almost constant._

_"__Michael, if you don't stop hitting me, I swear I will hit you," I growled through clenched teeth._

"_You chose to practice archery with the Apollo cabin, Monroe. You have to keep up with us."_

"_Lay off her, Michael. I'm pretty sure she could be one of us, with her natural talents in archery," one of his sisters grinned. I looked around at all of the sun-kissed, blonde Apollo campers, and shook my head. My black hair and pale skin didn't fit in at all, and I couldn't write a poem to save my life._

_We all looked towards the big house as the alarm rang._

"_To arms, campers! To arms!" a Hermes camper shouted as he raced by us. I sprinted after him to join my cabin in preparations for the battle to protect Olympus in New York._

"Cinny, dinner!" my mom called upstairs. I let my camp bead fall back to my chest. All of the names on that bead were people who had been unluckier than me, People who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, who had been overwhelmed by monsters. That was only a few months ago.

The crazy part, the part that I'm ashamed of every day that I wake up alive and realize all the demigods memorialized on my camp bead are dead, is that I hid. Most of the battle, I either hid and shot arrows when I could or I fought at the edges of the fray. I am ashamed and I hate myself a little every day when I remember what a chicken I had been. Maybe I could have saved some of my demigod friends.

"Hyacinth, you left your diary downstairs again," my little half brother said, tossing it to me. Kane was nine, and thought he knew everything. Even tried to read my diary all the time.

"You tried to read it, huh?" I said, ruffling his hair.

"You wrote it funny."

"In ancient Greek, little brother."

"Why not just write it in English? You do live in America, not Greece."

"I have Dyslexia, Kane. The English letters swim in front of me, and the Greek ones are a whole lot better. I can actually read them."

"Well, mom says dinner's ready, anyway," my little smartass of a brother said, still obviously annoyed he couldn't snoop in my diary. I stood up from my bed, and straightened my mom's old Led Zeppelin t-shirt I had stolen from the laundry years ago, and lightly pushed my brother in front of me down to dinner.

"So you're staying home for Christmas break, right?" my step dad Greg asked me. "Or are the monsters gonna get you?" he teased, poking me in the stomach, which made me smile.

"I don't know. I've still got another week left of school, and a therapist appointment tomorrow. I can't predict when monsters will attack, Greg... If I get attacked and need to go, I will. But I don't want to, I want to stay home for Christmas." I poked at my fish sticks. I really didn't want to go back to camp. So many people had lived with me in the Hermes cabin the previous summer. This summer, there wouldn't be anyone besides the Hermes kids. Plus one.

Thanks to Percy Jackson, all of the unclaimed children of gods had been claimed, or were being claimed. The last few weeks of camp the Hermes cabin almost emptied. I got a bunk out of the deal, at least. That was probably the only bright point. My father, my immortal parent was the only god who refused to recognize a daughter.

I poked my fish stick into ketchup again, although it already had too much on it. Maybe I just wasn't a demigod. Or I wasn't good enough. That was it. I wasn't enough of a demigod for my father to claim me. I abandoned my fish stick on a pile of green beans, and stood.

"Mom! Cinny didn't ask to be excused!" Kane pouted. He knew that if he tried to get up without eating his vegetables or asking to be excused he would be in for some serious corner time, and no dessert.

"Don't call me Cinny, only mom can do that," I told Kane. He was good enough. Mom and Greg accepted him. Loved him. He knew that he would always have two parents who loved him. I had one. One parent, and a god who didn't care.

The door slammed behind me and I ran into the snow. I kept running until I reached a park a few blocks from my house.

"Come out and face me!" I screamed to the sky. "Coward! Won't claim your own daughter! I ought to have let those hellhounds kill me! Maybe then you would see your disgrace of a demigod kid!" My bare feet were freezing in the snow, but I had to wait. I needed an answer.

But Olympus never answered.


	3. Chapter III

I didn't even try to get back into the house until Kane's bedtime. I didn't want to face my mom or Greg. I couldn't face them. The sight of them made me feel like I was absolutely worthless. I quietly opened the door promptly at 8:30. Mom and Greg would most likely be almost done with Kane's story and kissing him goodnight.

"You have been gone for more than two hours, Hyacinthus Jane. I want an explanation. Right now." My mother was sitting in front of the door in one of the chairs from her perfectly coordinated dining room. A vein was jumping in her temple, and her face was a mix of ruddy and pale, almost like strawberry swirl ice cream.

I ignored Mom's strange complexion and headed for the stairs. I didn't have the patience to deal with her, let alone the patience to deal with Greg when she called him into the mix, because Zeus knows she would call him in as soon as he was done putting Kane to bed.

"Come back here!" my mom called at me. "Or else start packing your crap, and I'll take you to camp tonight!"

I could tell that her threat was real, but I really didn't care. I stormed up the stairs to my room, and started throwing my stuff into a duffel bag. If my mom wanted me out, I was so gone. I might be able to find my father if I wasn't at home. It wasn't yet the winter solstice, and if I could get to camp before the event, I could go to Olympus with the year-round campers. Maybe if I stood face to face with the gods I could recognize my father. Perhaps he would recognize me, and finally claim me as his daughter.

"So that's it. You're choosing to leave before you'd talk to your own mother."

"That's not it, Mom! I just have to get out of here!" I needed her to understand. She had to. I wasn't just being a whiny baby.

"What's wrong with your home? You have people who love you here."

I silently shoved clothes into my duffle bag. "But not a dad."

"Greg loves you like his own daughter, Hyacinth! You have a father in him!"

"Mom! He's not my father! You can't just try to make me deny pert of myself! I'm a demigod, and that's not going to change, no matter how much Greg loves me, or whether my real dad will ever tell me who he is!"

"Your true father loves you, as well."

"Then why can't you tell me who he is? Please, Mom. I need to know." I wiped my eyes on my sleeve. All of the monsters in the world couldn't stop me from knowing. If I had to go on a thousand of the most dangerous quests in the world for my dad, I'd go on them. I'd come back with trophies of every monster, then I'd go back and kill them all again. "Mom, I just can't not know who my father is."

"You know that I can't tell you, sweetheart. I'm so sorry." I nodded at my mom, and let her hug me.

"I know, Mom, and I'll see you at the end of break. Hopefully I'll know who I am, then." The hand stroking my hair felt nice. Very motherly and comforting.

"You're my little girl, that is what you are. It's who you are. That's who you will always be. So how are you getting to camp?"

"I have no idea. I've got some money left from my birthday. I'll take a train, or a bus, or something, but I'll get there. I can send Chiron an Iris Message, and he'll send Argus to pick me up at the train station." I picked up my bow from the floor of my closet and unstrung it to stash it in my duffel bag with my quiver of celestial bronze arrows.

"All those weapons..." my mom was watching me strap a celestial bronze dagger to my waist, and settle my shirt over it. She picked up my sword, and set it into my duffle bag on top of my armor and my bow. "You'll never get through any sort of security with these."

"I'll tell people they're props for a play."

"I'm driving you," she said, a determined look set on her face, even when I protested.

"Mom! You don't have to do that! Don't you have to work tomorrow?" I zipped up my bag, and pulled on my coat. "I'm going on my own."

"You are fourteen, Hyacinth. You are not going to Long Island on your own!"

"You have work in the morning, Mom! I can't ask you to miss it for me."

She smiled, and nodded. "One more day at school, then. Leave your bag in the car when you go, and I'll leave work early to bring you to camp right after school. I'll write a note to your teachers. We can tell them that we're going on a vacation over your winter break. I'll be back home in time to get some sleep."

"Thanks, Mom." I wrapped my arms around her in a big bear hug. She really would do anything for me, no matter how strict she could be.

"I love you, Hyacinthus."


	4. Chapter IV

My mom dropped me off at Camp Half Blood late, way past dinner time. The tree nymphs had already finished the dishes, and were carting leftovers to the chariot arena. A guy and a girl were holding hands, waiting for the wheelbarrow of food. That was Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, waiting for the food to feed Mrs. O'Leary. They were inseparable, as always. It looked like Annabeth was chastising Percy, but they were pretty far away.

I hefted my duffel bag, a warm feeling spreading through my chest, like sipping heated nectar. Camp always made me feel like that. Warm, loved, and right where I belonged. Finding somewhere that safe and comfortable isn't easy for a demigod.

Chiron was outside the Big House, I could see him from the crest of Half Blood Hill. I knew I should go see him, but Dionysus was sitting in a lawn chair.

Mr. D liked to pretend I wasn't there. Travis used to tease me that it was because I was his daughter. Then at the very end of last summer, I asked him if he was my father. Mr. D laughed in my face, and told me to 'find a brain, you silly little girl!'

Okay, so I may have killed the only garden I've ever tried to grow, but that didn't mean that I was ridiculous for asking Mr. D whether he was my father. He was the only god that I had access to.

I started towards the cabins. In the months I had been gone, the half circle of cabins had been transformed into an oblong. My cabin was halfway down on the left, although I hoped to claim another cabin as my own soon. The Hermes cabin was crowded, with as many bunk beds stuffed in there as was demigodly possible. There wasn't much privacy, but I guess it was better than having to sleep in the grass.

"Hey, Travis, it's Daddy's Little Girl!" Connor Stoll called into the Hermes cabin. He was sitting on the porch of the building, his feet propped up on a pillar. He had a bowl of out of season cherries by his side, and was spitting the pits towards the Hecate cabin.

"Call me that again, and I'll tell Pollux you've been stealing the cherries from Castor's memorial tree." I tool a moment to enjoy the obviously fake shocked look on Connor's face while walking inside.

"I didn't know you were planning on coming back before summer." Travis, Connor's older brother, was lounging on his bunk, playing a PSP that he had probably stolen. While being god of roads, travelers, and messages, Hermes was also god of thieves and tricksters. Connor and Travis were both shining examples of their father's arts.

"I had some troubles at home."

"Monsters?" Travis sounded eager; he loved fighting. He could be almost as brutal as the Ares kids during capture the flag.

"No, family issues. I ran out during dinner. My mom got pissed." I headed across the cabin for my bunk.

"I wouldn't go up there. We're playing a trick on Joanie," Travis said, not bothering to look up from his game.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, changing the subject.

"We have bathroom cleaning duty. Being co-head councilor is awesome. We get to prank instead of clean," Connor grinned. It was a little mean how much they abused their power. Not that anyone questioned them, or else they'd end up falling asleep to a bucket full of Mrs. O'Leary's drool.

"Please tell me I don't have to clean," I said.

"Of course you don't, you just got here. Yes! Oh, take THAT, you bitch! Yeah!" Travis leaped up, throwing his arms into the air. "Champion!"

"He's been working on that boss for three hours," Connor said, and sat on his bunk. "So how are the daddy issues?"

"Haven't heard a word."

"Yeah, well, everyone here's got the same issue. Last time we saw Hermes, he didn't pay us any attention. He was too busy discussing something that was obviously really important with George and Martha."

"Untrue, Connor, he looked at all of us Hermes kids, and almost passed out. I don't blame him after Luke," Travis said. He set his game down to push his hair out of his eyes. "He's failed as a father. They all have. Maybe you are a daughter of Hermes, and he's just too ashamed to admit it."

"But I've seen him before, and he's never said a word to me!" I protested.

"You've only seen him since Luke turned. He's barely said three words to his children since Luke renounced the gods. He was always Hermes's favorite," Travis said.

"You ever thought about Apollo?" Connor asked. "You shoot well enough, and he has a lot of kids."

"Me? I can't write poetry to save my life," I snorted.

"But your name is Hyacinthus."

"So? My mom gave me a name. Big deal."

"The original Hyacinthus was one of Apollo's lovers."

Both Travis and I stared at Connor.

"What?" he asked. "I can be smart, too. I read."

"Guess I'd better talk to Apollo, then," I said.

"Okay, but you're not getting anywhere near any of the gods until the solstice, and that's not for another four days. So come to the sing along, it'll cheer you up," Travis said. He and Connor both reached for my hands, ready to pull me along to happier places.


End file.
